What is Beer Haze & Why Do We Care?

Originally published in the September/October 2003 issue of Zymurgy magazine. Last month you planned and brewed what should be your best beer yet, and today is the first pour. Your recipe used a new brand of malt extract, or a new specialty grain/wheat, and you added dry hops/fruit/spices to the secondary fermenter to give it that extra flavor you were looking for. The guys at the homebrew shop had tried pulling your leg when you told them the recipe—suggesting that you add seaweed to the boil and put fish guts and JELL-O in the fermenter. What a bunch of kidders. You didn't believe a word of it! And now you pour your best beer, and... it's cloudy! What  happened? Several possible factors can cause cloudy or hazy beer. Maybe it's simply that your yeast has not flocculated…

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